The Penn's Grove record., 1887-09-10
LETTER.

POTTSTOwN LETTER.
Pottstown, Pa. Sept. 9TH
TEE REcoRD-NO doubt your read
ers will be pleased to hear from the
Pennsylvania Dutch district. Potts
town is a pretty little city with a pop
ulation OF 10000 inhabitants. situated
on the Schuylkill river and o., the line
of the Pennsylvania and Reading rail
roads. 1t has sew Ell iron and nail fac
tories. The houses are mostly of bricks
with chimneys an top. There is no
Hard Tack Row" here but there is IA
Musk Rat Row" occupied by Bohe-
mians.
Near where | am boarding is Mt.
Washington, where one can see for
miles on every side, even looA right ov-
er the city far in the distant. Another
interesting place is Chicken Hill, where
the colored Dutchmen live. [Colored
DntchDenY Who ever heard of such
beforep They can speak Dutch as
fast as their tongues can wag. Mt
Misery is another attractive spot, very
steep. In fact most every hill and val
ley has "a name aud | think they are
suitably named. The majority of the
people are Pennsylvania Dutch and
their conversation is between a hogs
gruntting and a ducks quacking. Me
nix con ish Ditch braker. The ground
and highways are so hilly one has to
tie his vehicles fast to undo the uaces
for fear 1t will run nv. Ills 4 common
occuTance to see vehicles broken down
along the streets.
The Dutch ,.Fe vecy foud of Music %
| am suited in l5t direction. | have
spent four evenings already playing the
| organ or piano and have another rn-
gagement. The Lutheran Church has a
$4,000 pipe organ and they are minus
a player, | have had IA pressing invita-
tion to try 1t, and ii / would accept it
they would pay me "A salary. In fact
All THO tlutCiloS HdNc liie uiBdlo.
No less than a dozen hand organs and
monkeys are seen on the streets, and
also other kind Of noises from musical
Instruments. There are all classes and
natiOnalities OF prople here but they
are very sociable and plain. The town
is improving rspidly and has several
good public schools. Mrgg's College is
situated here. There is - W. &. 7. u.
here. Although the beer saloons are
numerous l have seen only M drunk
| Ell MA since | arrived.
Then there are the girls. They Are
so very numerous here, but they never
speak As / pass by. They only smile.
Oh, girly; oh, giriy, why are you so shy.
The stores should be called variety
stores AS you Cali buy anything you
want. The names al some of the wa
gons are very lAughable; such as,
Christman, O'LorI. lIefTrriinger, Au-
chenbaeha, Lostnau, Athouse. The
Dutch live Oh Lymberger, SW ISIS CHI ese,
meat TINT other people Wont eat, bread,
| and their (bier) beer,
Ringing rocks, tinee miles north are,
indeed, "a queer sight. About two acres
are high heaps of stones. looking as
| though they had fell from the sky.
When struck. by hammer they
ring like a blacksmith's anvil. Score
of people come from a distance to see
this wonderful sight. Nothing grows
between them. Foot prints can be
seen in the rocks and alsu the impress
| sioiis of wild animals. They are so
hard Us to break "a coal cllisel. The
'.Stroll Family" family of musicians
live here, of which probably you nave
heard. They have several stnres from
these rocks from which they extract
music. 1t is marvellous. Think there
is a cavern under these stones and so
do many others rs they are continually
sinking. There Is also a well near by,
from which comes Il ringing noise WHEN
stones are thrown dowA il. 1t IS said
it has no bottom. Oh. the edge ot this
are three stones close together and ten
feet square and a walnut tree three
feet in diameter is growing Oh them
nonrislled by the roots growing in the
narrow cracks. The scenery surpasses
Jerseys. W, "A. n. q